Some Southeast Asian Junk

McDonald's

I have to make this a quick post because the internet is problematic here at the Freedom Institute.  My interview this morning actually took place in the local McDonald's at Sarinah department store.  It was so weird.  It had a Ronald McDonald clown guy entertaining the kids, and it also had a very fancy coffee bar that served delicious Indonesian coffee, far better than regular McDonald's coffee. Also rather interesting is the fact that I was there at 9:00 AM, but all of the customers were eating hamburgers and french fries.  This just goes along with the general observation that Indonesians like to have dinner food for breakfast.

Last night James and I ate at a Sundanese restaurant.  It was quite tasty.  I had nasi timbel komplit, which comes with rice steamed in a banana leaf, fried chicken, fried tempe, fried tofu, fried salted fish, sour vegetable soup, and raw vegetables.  All for a bargain of $2.75.  James had siomay Bandung, the West Javanese take on Chinese dumplings often called shumai in the US.  Very good as well, but I liked mine better.

-1 +1 Indonesia

Indonesia loses one point for today, but gains another point back.  It loses a point because my first interview got postponed, but I didn't find out until I got to the place where the interview took place. I could tell that I was at the right place because my interviewee is Chinese and the first person to the gate was actually a dog.  But then his helper let me know that we'd be meeting at 3, not 9.  Argh.  That is not good news--I am so far 0 for 1.  But I do have plans to do another interview in a couple hours.  So that's OK.

Indonesia gains one point back because I remembered a couple of nice things that I really like here.  I've been rather annoyed by Jakarta as a city.  It's big and smelly and full of people and traffic and noises.  But as I walked down the quiet little side street where I had my meeting scheduled, I remembered some other things.  There were nice Indonesian families walking around, happy looking young girls headed to school, smiling guys selling coconuts and pomelos, the clack-clack of mobile soup seller, and the like.  When you're caught in the crush of traffic, it's easy to forget those quieter scenes.

Another interesting bit has been the effect of living in Malaysia on my view of Indonesia.  There is no question that Malaysia is far more developed than Indonesia, much easier to get around and much cleaner.  It brings more into focus the problems that Indonesia still has.  But the openness of ethnic distrust and conflict in Malaysia has made me much more conscious of ethnic differences here.  Before, I didn't focus that much on it, even though I know that it's a big deal for many Indonesians.  Now, I'm looking a lot more at people's faces here and trying to see who might be Chinese or partially Chinese.  Given that I'm interviewing a number of big figures in the Chinese community here, maybe I'm focusing on this more than before anyway.  Anyway, it's very interesting to focus on people's physical features here.

James Arrived

James has arrived, which makes me less lonely.  It's always fun to have a graduate student around to talk about the trials and tribulations of writing a dissertation.  It's also always fun to see the differences between History and Political Science as academic disciplines.  For a political scientist, saying "you're nothing more than a historian" is about the greatest insult.  For a historian, saying "you're trying to be a political scientist" is about the greatest insult.  Good times.

The plan for today is to email my interviewees to confirm, and to send them all my new phone number (email me if you want it).  Besides that, maybe a swim and some shopping.  James may want to explore, but I should really try to write if I can.

So far I've had coto Makassar (beef offal soup) and sate kambing (goat satay).  Both were delicious.  The coto had wonderful bits of heart, kidney, liver, and tripe in an oniony broth.  The sate were classic Indonesian street food, grilled with a sweet soy and lime glaze, served with a sweet peanut and soy paste, and sprinkled with both raw and deep fried shallots.  That's what I'm talking about.

Back in Jakarta

I'm back in Jakarta again.  Not much has changed, although at least for now things seem less busy.  That might just be because it's Saturday at noon and most people might not be out and about...other than that things are as I remember them.  Smells, especially, are quite striking.  I never quite noticed it, but Southeast Asian malls have a particular odor as well.  Not a bad odor, but a peculiar odor, some sort of mixture of perfume and boiling palm oil.

The hotel is nice, a bit nicer than the Hotel Cemara where JM and I stayed when we first arrived.  It has a business center and a functioning pool, both of which should be useful.  The restaurant looks OK as well.  Our room is small with two small single beds, but it'll have to do.  I guess James and I are going to get to be REAL good friends over the next three weeks.

A final note--Singapore Airlines clearly surpasses all other airlines in quality.  My last air trip was on Northwest to Phoenix, which was terrible.  On Singapore Airlines, I'm talking about over 60 (sixty!) movies available ON DEMAND, plus Family Guy, CSI, The Office, and loads more on demand, and even Super Mario Brothers and Tetris, all programmed for your seat.  The wine was good, as was the Tiger Beer, although not quite as cold as I would have preferred.  I will say that the seats aren't too big.  Oh, and another thing...my plane got in half an hour late and I had to sprint to make my connection in Singapore.  The reason why we were late?  According to our pilot, "heavy traffic" over Afghanistan caused us to be re-routed.  Yikes.

Back for a Limited Time Only!

That's right, readers, TP here with our first update in six months.  I am heading to Indonesia again for three weeks, from February 25 to March 18, to do a bit more research.  While I'm there, you can expect regular new updates on my travels.

Unfortunately, this trip will not be much of a vacation, so I won't be traveling to interesting locales throughout the country.  My priority is to meet and interview as many academics, politicians, economists, journalists, businesspeople, and the like as I possibly can while I'm there.  So that confines me to Jakarta mostly.  But I do hope to get out of Jakarta, hopefully for a trip to Bandung or Bogor, or maybe to the Thousand Islands in the Java Sea north of Jakarta, or maybe even to Krakatau (Krakatoa) in the strait between Java and Sumatra.  We'll just have to see.

Hopefully, though, I'll be able to relate some interesting stories even if I don't travel too much.  I should also note that JM will not be joining me, which is a real downer.  Instead I will be traveling in the company of James, a college friend who studies colonial American economic history, specifically trade.  He's had to do research in such hardship places as Mauritius and Cape Town, and now wants to see about ships coming through old Batavia.

Professional priorities

• Interviews
• Data collection
• Make contacts for future work

Culinary priorities

• Ayam Goreng Ny. Suharti (Mrs. Suharti's Fried Chicken)
• gado-gado
• pecel lele (fried catfish and salad)
• masakan Padang
• mendoan tempe (breaded and deep-fried tempe)
• coto Makassar (beef or water buffalo offal soup) from Rumah Makan Losari on Jalan Kendal
• bakso ayam (chicken and meatball soup)
• dendeng (deep-fried beef or goat jerky)
• bebek Bali (Balinese-style duck, cooked until the bones are tender enough to eat)
• bakut Ahon (Chinese pork ribs, Bandung-style)
• Bir Bintang
• sate (satay, all types)